The Wallabies were left to rue what could've been as the Bledisloe Cup stays in New Zealand for another year.
The Australians were within two points of the All Blacks with ten to go, before a late Cam Roigard try sealed the 33-24 win at Eden Park.
Watch the Wallabies tackle the All Blacks live and on-demand via Stan Sport.
The victory extends the All Blacks' unbeaten streak at the ground to 52 games, having defeated the Springboks earlier in the Rugby Championship.
"Obviously disappointing to miss out on the Bledisloe for another year, but credit to New Zealand, they outplayed us tonight," Wallabies captain Harry Wilson told the broadcast post-match. "We gave ourselves an opportunity there, but well done New Zealand."
The Wallabies had fought back from a 20-3 deficit to trail by three points thanks to tries to Billy Pollard and Harry Potter.
Ultimately, discipline and kicking issues proved their undoing as they conceded 11 of the last 12 penalties.
"I'm proud of the way we stayed in the fight," coach Joe Schmidt said. "I thought, two points in it with 10 to go, we were right in the fight after being 20-3 down early on.
"When we got our chances, we didn't quite find touch with a couple of them, which are our access points, but we put a couple of really good attacks together and a great driving maul to get to within two points, and they were the positives, so we've got to keep building on them.
"The negatives, we've just got to look back at some of those penalties because they were what really hurt us"
Wilson turned his focus towards next week's second Bledisloe Test in Perth, with the return of Jake Gordon set to offset a potential hamstring injury to Tate McDermott.
"We're definitely on the right track. We just can't keep giving teams head starts but the Rugby Championship is still alive, so there's a lot for us to play for next week," he added.
"We know our game really well and we're a really close unit, I don't think I've ever been a part of a team this close and you see it out there.
"For us, this is another learning, and we're going to be a lot better next week."
